DESIGNING AND BUILDING A DIGITAL LIBRARY SYSTEM AT CELIA LIBRARY FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED, FINLAND

Päivi Voutilainen

In 2005 the Libraries for the Blind Section produced guidelines called Designing and Building Integrated Digital Library Systems (IDLS). It was my pleasure to attend the working group preparing this booklet. At the same time the digital library systems were under construction at my own library, the Celia Library in Finland.

My intention with this presentation is to discuss a few points from these Guidelines. These points in the light of our experience, call for special attention while designing digital library systems.

First, few words about Celia Library:

Celia - Library for the Visually Impaired is the only library in Finland specializing in serving the visually impaired. The library was founded in 1890 and became state-owned in 1978. The library serves the blind and partially sighted persons, public libraries, schools and other institutions in the whole of Finland. The library has about 12 000 patrons.

• The library produces and lends Braille books, talking books, electronic books and other special materials in a variety of user friendly formats. Talking books on DAISY CD-rom are produced and distributed by on demand, while c-cassettes (in collections for another couple of years), are lent out in traditional ways, mostly by mail. The collection include about 32 000 audio titles, 6000 titles of Braille books, also Braille music and magazines plus electronic books. We also offer relief picture materials, and our speciality is a wide collection of illustrated tactile books for children.
• Library's services can be reached in different ways chosen by the user. The patrons are able to use the library independently through Celianet Web service on the Internet. In Celianet a registered library user can search for titles and borrow them, make book reservations and wishes, browse loan records and change own personal information. Library materials may also be ordered by e-mail, phone or post or by visiting Celia's service centre in Helsinki. Celia's books may also be found in public or other libraries and schools.

Celia Library produces Daisy books, Braille books and electronic books for the library's lending department as well as for school children and students at different levels of education, vocational training and self-study.

Secondly,

Celia's Digital Library 2008

The vision for Celia Library is to be an expert in producing alternative materials and distributing them to print disabled persons. Library's main objective is to create equality in terms of access to information and literature.

As the new millennium began, the following question was asked: what does this vision mean in practise for a modern library for the blind. During our brain storming sessions, we found that in our case, it means at least four things:

• new user-oriented services for a much larger clientele,
• new digital formats in production and distribution,
• effective supporting technologies and data architecture
• and finally a new staff competence.

We set our future target, a strategy of growth. Our strategy was named Celia's Digital Library 2008. But how can this target be reached within a few years, and where to start?

If we had access to the IDLS guidelines, we could have turned to page 7: Planning an IDLS Project: Defining the Scope of an IDLS Project. But these guidelines didn't exist then. In recent years we have carried out many projects, but this time we were in a situation where almost everything was changing. We needed a complete and fully articulated concept of what should be accomplished. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of using time, effort and resources in performing the planning and envisioning phase.

Together with our consultant, we produced a diverse document where the goals, business requirements and development phases were described. But no matter how well you plan, new things will always come up. Therefore, this document is constantly reviewed and updated, but the complete picture with all factors and links involved must be clearly documented. In Finland, we say "well planned is half done" ("Hyvin suunniteltu on puoliksi tehty").

Our starting point or basis for planning was the fact that we already had a new library system for lending and cataloguing. It was implemented a year ago. This was the condition we needed to take into account. We then decided that this large library system called the PallasPro should be the basis and core of our digital library.

It could have been a risky affair to try to customize an existing system to other new components needed. It'd be easier, if all the components of a digital library system could be planned at the same time, but that seldom is a real life situation. Anyway, we were lucky; the Pallas system was advanced and flexible enough to be modified for the library's new digital services and systems. Its functional cataloguing model even gave us new advanced opportunities in organizing digital content. The PallasPro also had an interactive web-based self-service module, which could be modified for the use of visually impaired persons. It became Celianet - library's web-based service.

In our development plan we wanted all the components of our library system to work in high degree of integration. Although we have multiple components and information systems with many suppliers, they all work together seamlessly. All book and client information, circulation, production and archive data, should be accessible to the user regardless of format and location. We would also adopt common structure standards, like Daisy and XML for different types of our material.

The following components that comprise now Celia Library's integrated digital system include these functions maintained by the PallasPro Library System:

• Cataloguing and indexing: All new titles are catalogued at the library by our own staff. Our annual acquisition is app. 1 600 titles. Our cataloguing system uses MARC format. Celia has implemented also the FRBR model in cataloguing. Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) is a useful cataloguing model for libraries for the blind, because of the multiplicity of collection materials. In practise it means e.g. that the user makes one search and finds out all the formats or language versions available. Celia's OPAC is also accessible through our web page.
• Archives of digital books and other content: Since the present year Celia now has a digital archive. The present archive capacity is 18 TB online and it will be replaced with a SAN system in November. The functionality of the bibliographic records operates also in the digital data repository architecture and in organizing and identifying folders. In the archives there are now about 5 000 digital Daisy titles, partly new digital acquisitions and partly digitized analogue materials.
• Circulation and distribution: The PallasPro Public Library system was heavily modified in order to meet the requirements of a library for the blind. The digital archives contain the masters, and the distribution copies are in Daisy format. C-cassette books are still circulated in traditional manner by lending and returning. Daisy-CD-ROMs are lent out by on demand. CDs are burned in-house and mailed to patrons in non-returnable cardboard boxes. Patrons sign a contract in which they agree to destroy the cd's after reading the books. In order to compensate the automatic lending service in use earlier, Celia now has new types of service, such as monthly book clubs. Celia is not only supplying books on demand, but actively offering professionally selected book titles via several book clubs to patrons according to their interests. These new services have quickly improved the lending statistics.
• Celia's delivery channels are multiple interfaces for the library staff and users. The number of patrons using Celia's web-service Celianet is growing. In the near future a project for distribution through the Internet will be started. Celia's digital library will again manifest new forms and expressions.
• A system for acquisition of library assets and materials through exchange or purchase from bookstores is soon ready to be implemented in a new version.

All these functions I mentioned are maintained by PallasPro Library system.

Digital Production system

Celia Library has a large in-house production of alternative materials. Annual production is about 1 600 titles. Also out-house recording of talking books is in use, and most talking books are in Daisy type 2. Ease Publisher software, MyStudioPC and Plextalk PRS are used as production tools. Approximately 15 000 titles from our analogue collection will be transferred into digital format within the next few years. The ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is used to coordinate production and to sell text books. The ERP system is also tuned for accessing the data from the PallasPro library system.

According to our plans, Braille book production and distribution will be changed into on demand basis next year. Other future projects will be: development of new net based services, production of talking books on synthetic speech and co-operation with mainstream publishers.

Finally, a few words about training and marketing

As it is stated in the IDLS document, the training and support of users and staff are both crucial to the successful deployment of a Digital Library System. A plan and timeline for training users and Celia staff has been established and followed. Marketing and promoting the benefits of digital talking books, on demand lending and new services to users have been an important and continuing task for our library staff.

The execution of Celia's development plan started in 2004. Most of the projects have been run at the scheduled time. Exception was the digital archive project due to a difficult bidding competition. Today things are proceeding smoothly according to schedule. Realizing its development plan 2008 towards a digital library, Celia will hopefully reach its future target, and create growth both in service capacity and quality for the increasing clientele.

I'd like to end with a quotation from the IDLS guidelines: "Guidelines for the development of the digital library must begin with the assumption that the library remains a collection of organized content reflecting works of imagination and information necessary to facilitate life long learning, career development and an informed citizenry. Digitization is a means of ensuring that library collections are preserved and accessible to all regardless of disability."

The Integrated Digital Library report belongs to the series of IFLA Professional Reports, No.90.

It is available on IFLA's web page for Libraries for the Blind Section http://www.ifla.org/VII/s31/pub/Profrep90.pdf and

It may be bought in printed form from IFLA Headquarters in Netherlands, www.ifla.org